San Diego may not be the worldwide travel player that some of its big-city rivals are, but it would do well to broaden its international reach, says one of the country’s foremost experts on global travel.

The city’s convention center was the site this month of the yearly meeting of the Global Business Travel Association, which drew thousands of business travel and meetings planners and suppliers.

The group’s executive director, Michael McCormick, who joined the organization in 2009 when it was still the National Business Travel Association, has been responsible for giving the group a much more global focus — and a new name. It’s all in keeping with his strong belief that business as a purely local venture has become an anachronism and that enterprises of all sizes today have the ability to grow a customer base around the world.

Michael McCormick

Personal: Age, 48; born in Binghamton, NY; married with five children; lives in Alexandria, VA

Education: Received his business administration degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame.

Career: Has more than 20 years of travel industry experience, having served as managing partner of Hudson Crossing, a travel industry advisory business, before joining GBTA. Other past positions include executive vice president of the Cendant Hospitality & Leisure Group, president of Biztravel.com, and chief operating officer of PhoCusWright, a travel market research firm.

Favorite travel destinations: Outer Banks, North Carolina; last year’s Olympics in London, (“It was really a trip of a lifetime”)

He took time while in San Diego to speak about the state of business travel and San Diego’s place in what is a growing market. Just within the U.S., business travel spending this year is expected to reach $273.3 billion, a more than 4 percent increase over 2012.

Q: Your convention, which is global in nature, chose to meet this year in San Diego. Do you see San Diego poised for more international business travel now that it has nonstop service to the UK and Japan?

A: For business people, increasing the amount of international service is key. So that should be a priority. Today, business is global, whether you’re a small startup or a multinational corporation. Opportunity is all over the world, so San Diego needs to be a competitive business headquarters, and the more international flights the better.

What we’ve been finding is that although we’ve seen a bit of recovery in the U.S., Brazil, Latin America, Russia, India and China are really the high-growth and high-volume markets for both travel and business in general. Having air service to Asia and the UK is a very good start, but for business travelers, the convenience to get to other continents even for the first leg of the journey is critical.

Q: What do the business and government travel planners in your organization look for in a destination when making travel arrangements for groups large and small?

A: San Diego can be very competitive. Certainly as a convention destination, it is top tier, so for companies looking to have large meetings, it’s a good choice. You have good facilities, hotel space and the weather is decent, too. It’s a comfortable hybrid between a city that conducts business and has a laid-back flair.

Q: What do the business and government travel planners in your organization look for in a destination when making travel arrangements for groups large and small?

A: One thing we do look at is whether a city is in the top 10 list of cities that have low travel taxes, which includes hotel and car taxes. We do an annual study, and San Diego is very competitive. Ideally, you want low taxes, and those that do come in are invested back into projects that benefit the business traveler, like improving the convention center. Where we struggle is when we have high taxes to penalize the business traveler to offset budget deficits or pet projects.

The airport is also important, having proper facilities to get through security and if it’s well laid out with good signage, good transportation, all that affects how much companies will want to come back.

Q: What are the biggest challenges your membership faces these days, especially in the areas of air travel and security?

A: The major issues we’re looking at are transparency about pricing and distribution, making sure buyers have access to the information they need to make good purchasing decisions, taxes that don’t punish our industry, and moving through the system efficiently. And with the recent global terror announcements, as always, our industry bears the burden of managing risk when they travel.

Back when sequestration was threatening air traffic controller layoffs, it was really frustrating to us. It was all a political dispute that was holding our industry hostage. We lobbied very aggressively to make sure we were heard, and in a matter of days were able to get the issue resolved, but in the meantime travelers were affected. That’s really frustrating, because that’s so disruptive to business travel and business in general.

Q: Business travel and group meetings took a big hit during the recession. What is the outlook for such travel?

A: For the U.S. outlook, we’ve now recovered back to just above the levels we were at in 2008. It’s been a long recovery road, and we’ve seen some modest growth, about 4.5 percent in total business travel expenditures. We’re anticipating 5.9 percent growth next year and more modest growth in subsequent years. By the end of 2014, China will overtake the U.S as the world’s largest business travel market.